Business Roundup

Momentive Performance Materials named John G. Boss as CEO effective Dec. 15, 2014. A 30-year chemical industry veteran most recently at Honeywell, Boss has been Momentive’s interim CEO since October.

MEGlobal, an ethylene glycol joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Co. of Kuwait and Dow Chemical, is studying construction of an ethylene glycol plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The company says the plant, of undetermined size, would be completed in 2018.

LCY Group Chairman Bowei Lee and several other employees are among those being charged by the prosecutor’s office in the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung over an underground pipeline explosion that killed 32 people and injured hundreds of others last summer. LCY owned the propylene pipe.

Metabolix, a maker of biobased and biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate resins, has delayed committing to an intermediate-scale contract manufacturing site to produce its Mirel-brand products. Instead the firm will increase output at its pilot-scale contract plant while it works to develop markets.

Frutarom, an Israeli flavors and ingredients firm, has agreed to acquire Vitiva of Slovenia for $10 million in cash. Vitiva specializes in research, development, and production of natural colors and plant extracts with antioxidant or other health benefits.

Evotec, a German contract research firm, will work with Ohio State University professor Roger Briesewitz to advance a way of fighting a protein, KRas, that is involved in several cancers. Briesewitz has discovered a new approach for engaging mutant KRas, long considered an intractable drug target.